Pete Wentz Rocks the Vote – & Votes for Britney

In Denver at the Democratic National Convention, Fall Out Boy band members are doing double duty: announcing the Nov. 4 release of their third Island album, Folie é Deux, and playing a concert Monday for Rock the Vote – aimed at getting youth involved in the political process.

Talking backstage to PEOPLE before their concert, bassist Pete Wentz and singer-guitarist Patrick Stump say they don’t want to preach from the stage, although Stump admits this is a “political record, but it’s never going to say outright ‘Vote for Obama.’ ”

In terms of their own leanings, Wentz, 29, says they are all “liberal democrats from the suburbs of Chicago,” adding that his parents met when they were both working on a Joe Biden campaign.

Then, apparently trying to appear non-partisan, he says in the next breath, “I’m definitely not against voting for a Republican.”

The two musicians were a bit more forthright on their choice in the VMA race, specifically why they voted for Britney Spears‘s video in the MTV competition, to be held Sept. 7.

Supports Britney Spears

Wentz was there when Spears made a promo for the awards show. “I got to meet the elephant [in the video],” he says. “It was awesome. Britney really proves how much the fans really matter, because the fans really want to see Britney win and turn it around.”

Even though the Fall Out Boys plan to attend the VMAs and have won in the past (and even hope to win again), they actually voted for videos other than their own. “To be honest, I don’t think this is the Fall Out Boys’s year,” says Wentz.

And while he didn’t want to talk about the impending birth of a child with his wife, Ashlee Simpson, Wentz did admit he wants to live somewhere outside of Los Angeles, “because L.A. has become pretty boring to me.”

Ultimately he says, the Wentzes want to end up in Chicago. “But,” Pete insists, “we don’t have plans tomorrow.”